Extraction without pain was born in a pandemic

Venezuelans continue to show that, like diamonds, they show their brilliance under extraordinary pressure. This is the case of Extraction without pain, an original work by Aquiles Nazoa, directed by and starring Dante Gil Lombardi, which was awarded the People’s Choice Awards at the Liverpool International Theater Festival, in Canada.

“It has been incredible, wonderful. It is a pride to see our flag in other cultural spaces of the world. This award is dedicated to our beloved homeland Venezuela. I am sure that in any corner of the world where there is a Venezuelan, he will feel proud to see his homeland reflected in the talent of its artists and athletes, ”said the director.

The play, born to keep the theater alive in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, is a translation of Nazoa’s Painless Extraction, “which narrates the encounter in a dental office of two characters: one puppet and the other wears a mask similar to those of the Italian art comedy ”, he said.

Bringing it to the stage arose from his concern “to make an entertaining play that fused different codes and audiovisual elements with the language of the theater and aimed especially at boys and girls.”

And it was precisely the boys and girls, the first judges and those who gave the go-ahead to Gil Lombardi. “I made the first presentations with my son and some neighbors so that they themselves would give me their impressions and that allowed me to make the final adjustments.”

And they were not wrong: this is the second prize that the work receives. The first was in 2020, at the Euro Puppet Festival in Valsesia, in Italy, successes that for the director, “will serve to strengthen and promote the talent of our Venezuelan artists”, and they have done so.

“We assumed, with the support of the House of the Artist and Susej Vera, the challenge of making an English version to apply to Canada, where we would compete with pieces from the world and it turned out to be one of the finalists together with the United States, Greece, Uganda and Italy”.

Gil Lombardi assured that they will soon offer performances at the Artist’s House and announced that, together with Susej Vera, “we plan a program to premiere new theatrical pieces during the weeks of flexibility.